Toledo Chamber Blog

​Born and raised in Toledo, Amanda Held chose to come home after she served 4 years on active duty in 2003. A lifelong equestrian, Amanda is a veteran who now has 16 years combined service in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard. She has personally overcome PTSD and founded H.O.O.V.E.S (Healing Of Our Veterans Equine Service) with a vision to reach out to other veterans and share her healing experience.

Amanda joined the military in 1999 and was stationed at the Air Force Academy in 2003 where she was first introduced to “gentling” wild horses. In 2008 a gentleman shared the concept of equine assisted psychotherapy with Amanda and she knew she had found her lifelong calling. She immediately became certified and offers both corporate and veteran healing experiences. Amanda is one of 4,500 people across 50 countries certified as an equine specialist through EAGALA, the leading Equine Assisted Psychotherapy program in the world. Her thirteen employees are all rescued horses. In addition to her work with H.O.O.V.E.S., Amanda is still serving in the Air National Guard at the 122nd Fighter Wing in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

​“One of the biggest things horses can teach us is about leadership.” – Amanda Held, Founder H.O.O.V.E.S

Amanda’s business is founded on the belief that by interacting with horses, you can learn a great deal about yourself and the effectiveness of your communication skills. She uses very specific techniques with horses to help veterans heal, regain control and return to the life they fought to protect. Her goal is to help veterans like herself smoothly re-enter and transition to a civilian lifestyle when they have returned or retired from service.

Volunteers are needed to help care for the facility and the horses. Amanda is currently looking to establish partnerships with businesses in the area to find volunteers, provide team building experiences, and help promote the H.O.O.V.E.S. program. The goal of the non-profit is to provide healing services to veterans at no-cost.

​“I’ve never seen someone go through this and walk away untouched.” – Amanda Held

​Currently Amanda is creating a documentary of the program that will debut March 2018. They will be filming until November of this year and any person or organization that supports HOOVES this year will receive their name or the name of their business in the credits of the film.

​Amanda E. HeldToledo born, Amanda Held is a certified stress coach and certified equine specialist, who creates programs and custom workshops using a wide variety of new and unique personal development methods, based on real life experiences, to help people and teams overcome stress, embrace change and achieve success. A lifelong equestrian, Amanda is a veteran with 16 years combined service in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard, who has personally overcome PTSD. She founded hooves with a vision to reach out to other veterans and share her healing experience. Since founding her non-profit HOOVES in 2009, she has helped over 250 veterans and their family members with healing from PTSD, grief and reintegration struggles. She has also rescued and rehabilitated over 100 horses, 10 of which were wild mustangs. Amanda currently resides in Grand Rapids, Ohio with her husband Justin, daughter Joelle and son Trenton.

Emily DammeyerEmily Dammeyer is the Communications Manager for the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce. Please email emily.dammeyer@toledochamber.com to submit a story for our blog.

This is such a gift to these who are suffering. The most important thing you can give someone is your time.. It is precious. Thank you for this informative article. May God bless your ministry of helping the hurting and giving them and their families hope.